Run Ottawa Road Trip to Glen Tay Block Race

Run Ottawa is organizing a trip to Eastern Ontario’s oldest road race, the Glen Tay Block Race, slated for Thursday, August 31, 2017 in the town of Perth, Ontario.

Resurrected as a centennial project in 1967 by local resident Tom Graham, the initial Glen Tay race took place in 1908. The route used today is the same one used then, a quirky 14.7 kilometre (9.1 miles) distance for the rectangular shaped course that starts and finishes in front of the Perth Museum on Gore Street. Apart from that portion, the rest of the route takes runners west on Christie Lake Road to the hamlet of Glen Tay, south to county road 10 and then back to Gore Street for the final 1.7K. The other wrinkle is that the race starts at 6:00 p.m. sharp.

We will have a bus ready to board at the Food Basics Store on the corner of Hazeldean and Iber Roads at 4:00 p.m. that will take you to Perth and get you there in plenty of time to get warmed up and ready for the start. Once the race has been run and the awards given out, we will head over to one of the many pubs in the downtown area and get dinner, with the bus leaving town between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. A reservation will be made for the group so that they will be ready for our arrival.

This is a basic race in terms of amenities. The $15 entry fee takes care of awards and race numbers. The race size has varied between 75 and 130 participants over the past few years. There are not many races like this one any more but the distance is challenging and being on the cusp of many fall marathon and half marathons, offers a great opportunity to turn a weekly workout into something different. Visit their website at www.glentayblock.com

Please go the link below and register for the bus. There is also an option to register for the race and the bus. There is no online registration for the race, so we can take care of it if you choose that option.